A historic and troubled property located at 2205 Mission Street at the intersection with 18th Street is for sale again after a deal with a commercial developer fell through. Its current owner, former Facebook executive Owen van Natta, is asking $7 million for the property according to the realtor for the property. He purchased it for $5 million in 2014....
Despite the general knowledge that bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace, graffiti abatement notices seem to arrive with lightning speed. For the second time, one city department has issued a warning to another department to clean up a lot at 16th Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Last year, it was for a blighted lot, and this year, it’s for graffiti. The...
Some 60 people, including whole families, turned out for the first in a series of community outreach meetings concerning the construction of a 130-unit affordable housing project at 681 Florida St. that could break ground in Spring 2019. People were there to learn about applying for the spaces and to make suggestions on the use of its community space. ...
A good chunk of the discussion about housing affordability comes down to how long a tenant has been in a building constructed before 1979 – 30 days to secure tenants rights and the longer you’ve been in one place, the cheaper your rent is likely to be. But there is also the market. For a long while I’ve been under...
Developments in Development is a weekly column recapping real estate, business, planning, zoning and construction news. The nuns have won! It only took 20,000 signatures and three hours of testimony from 20 or so people, but the Sisters of the Fraternite Notre Dame will open a soup kitchen on Mission Street near 16th Street. This has been a drama unfolding...
Developments in Development is a weekly column recapping real estate, business, planning, zoning and construction news. It’s over! Now on to the next mess that will be 2017. And much as we have tooted the horn of how horrible 2016 was, we have challenges ahead. Consider that San Francisco is, according to Curbed and the city controller, almost at its...
A 175,000-square-foot research center to be built by UCSF on what is currently a parking lot at San Francisco General Hospital is moving closer to completing its application process, though the groundbreaking date has been somewhat delayed. The research facility would house workspace for some 800 UCSF employees who have thus far conducted their work at SF General in older,...
It has been a week full of revelations on the housing front, but before I get into that, let’s take a moment to consider that rents have dipped, again. At least that is what Curbed reports based on an overview of realty sites’ estimates of asking rents at currently vacant apartments. Also, while fur often flies in the world of...
It was a rare moment of accord at City Hall on Thursday, as activists frequently on opposite sides of San Francisco’s housing wars buried their hatchets to jointly support a Mission District affordable housing project contested by its neighbors. The project went before the Planning Commission to seek a height bonus, which would allow it to go to 85 feet in...
I must have angered the universe with my last happy-go-lucky, things-are-looking-up column because now there is tension, fear, but most of all uncertainty in the air. By that I do mean the election, but I’m not sure that the election alone is at the center of the unease that seems to have touched the development and real estate world locally....
A combination laundromat and café will occupy the space at the corner of Mission and 20th streets come January in the form of Laundré. The café-laundromat will feature a full-scale coffee bar alongside energy-efficient laundry machines and free soap with every wash. Owner Ariana Roviello noted that while a typical wash-and-dry cycle takes about 90 minutes to two hours, it will...
Yes, rents are still nuts, yes, only the rich can afford to move here…and yet, most of what I’ve seen floating around this week is kinda positive. I don’t mean to diminish the crisis. Bloomberg has a dispatch from another rent comparison study that really brings it home that yes, San Francisco is officially the most expensive city in the...
Voters seem to have a bit of a love-hate relationship with tech – at least that’s what Curbed has found when comparing a recent survey of voters (commissioned by the pro-development Rise SF) that found most blame both the tech industry and the city for housing costs, and a 2015 survey (commissioned by a mayoral aide) that found most voters...
Fur is flying nationwide as cities around the country figure out how to deal with the housing arm of the sharing economy – short term rentals, a.k.a. Airbnb. Locally, District 9 Supervisor David Campos has joined lawmakers around the country in signing a letter, Elizabeth-Warren-style, to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to study to what extent Airbnb and other...
If you hoped that there is a light at the end of the tunnel where maybe housing prices would become sane again, don’t, says Curbed. They used an analysis from AppFolio, and an expert who said the chances of rents actually dropping, let alone down to reasonable amounts, are pretty slim. SFGate has a more optimistic interpretation of the same data,...
